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Range—oil production at 533 barrels a day

Range Resources Ltd has announced that it achieved average production of 533 barrels of oil per day (bopd) in March this year. This is Range’s first report to the London Stock Exchange (LSE) of actual oil production in T&T. The company also named Terry Motley as operations manager for Trinidad, a territory which Range Chairman Sam Jonah said will be the company’s main focus going forward.

On April 10, at a reception at Prime Restaurant in Port-of-Spain, Jonah said the company took the decision to make T&T its main focus following the announcement of the new tax incentives for oil and gas exploration in the 2013/2014 national budget.

Ghana-born South Africa-based Jonah lavished praise on T&T’s Energy and Energy Affairs Minister Kevin Ramnarine at the reception, telling guests that in his 50-plus years in the extractive industries, he found Ramnarine to be “the best minister of natural resources” with whom he had the pleasure to work anywhere in the world. Regarded as one of the richest men in Africa, Jonah made his fortune in mining, oil and gas, and equity trading, according to the US’ Business Week magazine.

“The company is also delighted to announce the appointment of Terry Motley, as operations manager in Trinidad. Motley has extensive global experience in all aspects of drilling and production operations, including Trinidad. “Most significantly, (he) managed multiple rigs to increase oil production onshore Yemen from 2,000 bopd to 25,000 bopd over a two-year period. Additionally, Motley has technical expertise in horizontal drilling, high-pressure wells, and multi-well developments,” Range told the LSE.

Operations continue without any safety or environmental incidents and have been free of loss time incidents (LTI) since September 2013. “Average production for March was 533 bopd. Three of the fleet of six drilling rigs are fully operational and drilling ahead. The fourth (rig 1) has now undergone preliminary regulatory inspections prior to becoming operational. The maintenance programme for the remaining heavy rigs 6 and 7 continues,” Range said.

Giving a field development drilling update on Morne Diablo, Range said its QUN 148 well has been completed and is on production. Its QUN 149 well has been drilled to a total depth of 1,400 feet in the Lower Forest horizon. The well was completed and is under production test, Range said. QUN 150 well is drilling with the rig at approximately 700 ft with a target depth of 1,400 ft. Following delays in sourcing equipment, the sidetrack on the deeper well MD 248 kicked off from 3,234 ft targeting a depth of 6,500 ft.

On its South Quarry field development drilling, Range said its QU 452 well was drilled to a revised depth of 1,945 feet. The well was logged and partly perforated, showing an influx of oil with no water produced. Range said it is currently awaiting regulatory approvals for further perforations.

QU 452 was the first development well to be drilled in the South Quarry field since 2007. This outstep development programmw is expected to extend the field’s shallow producing trend into new fault blocks and result in additional proved reserves and future development targets.

The QU 453 well is drilling with rig 2 below 700 ft with a target depth of 2,000 ft, Range said. The company said it received Petrotrin approval for its Beach Marcelle waterflood programme and is currently awaiting further regulatory approvals.a number of financing opportunities, including the previously announced Reserve Based Lending option, for the company’s development projects in Trinidad.

The company is also seeking to refinance existing convertible bond issues. Negotiations with funding providers are ongoing and Range said it will update the market when these are finalised.

In its most recent results reported to the LSE—the half-year ended December 31, 2013—Range posted a net loss of US$18.1 million, almost double the US$9.6 million loss for the same period in 2012.